Abu Dhabi’s happiness island

‘Artists should not be asked to exhibit their work in buildings built on the backs of exploited workers,’ Walid Raad, a Lebanese-born New York artist, said in 2011. ‘Those working with bricks and mortar deserve the same kind of respect as those working with cameras and brushes.’ Raad is a member of ‘Gulf Labor’, a New York-based group of artists who have taken action over the rights of workers employed to build the new branch of the Guggenheim museum on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In 2009, shortly after the publication of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, this artists’ collective called for a boycott of the planned new museum. HRW made an explicit link between kafala (the system of sponsorship of immigrant workers, see Qatar’s abused workforce) and widespread violations of the rights of the 7,000 workers employed on the three construction sites.

A giant cultural complex is being created on Saadiyat (Happiness) Island, with three major tourist attractions: local franchises of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums, and the Zayed National Museum.

Like Qatar, the UAE (which is made up of seven states) has enormous oil and gas reserves, 90% of them in Abu Dhabi. Expatriates, mostly from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, account for nearly 90% of the country’s total population (7.8 million out of 9.2 million). They keep the UAE’s economy running and put up the landmark buildings for which it is famous.

‘Even though the authorities did away with compulsory exit visas two years ago, the situation is comparable to that of workers in Qatar,’ said Ambet Yuson, secretary general of the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers. This union has picked causes likely to get its demands noticed by the media — Abu Dhabi’s museums and Qatar’s World Cup.

Walid Raad said the artists’ efforts have been only a partial success: ‘We helped make international opinion aware of the problem, but the lives and working conditions of the immigrants in Saadiyat have scarcely changed.’ Tim Noonan, campaigns director for the International Trade Union Confederation, agreed: ‘Bank transfers have made no difference — though they were introduced in the Emirates in 2009 to stop partial withholding of wages — because workers don’t have access to ATMs. They have to travel to find one, and because they only have one day off per week, they end up queuing with thousands of others.’ HRW has highlighted a further problem: ‘While electronic payments help in detecting non-payment of wages, they do nothing to prevent employers from delaying wage payment for months at a time or not paying at all’ (1).